About this title: Gillies pens a fast-paced, intriguing memoir in which she is forced to come to terms with the swift destruction of her picture-perfect life after her husband leaves her for another woman--something her rival reminds her, happens every day.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781439110072ISBN:1439110077
Description: New. First Printing 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2. Slight shelf wear. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Description: Good. 1439110077 Fast Shipping. Cover is torn, wrinkled, missing or book is otherwise damaged. Customer Service is our #1 priority. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9781439110072ISBN:1439110077
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Like New. 2009-Hardcover-May contain minor shelf-wear. Otherwise, volume un-read and in "As-New" condition. -Used-Like New-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Description: Good. 2009-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 3-24-09
ISBN-13:9781439110072ISBN:1439110077
Description: FINE. Crisp, clean and unread hardcover with light shelfwear to the dust jacket, remainder mark to one edge-VERY NICE! ! 0.79 lbs. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 3-24-09
ISBN-13:9781439110072ISBN:1439110077
Description: VERY GOOD. Crisp, clean and unread hardcover with light shelfwear to the dust jacket, remainder mark to one edge-VERY NICE! ! 0.79 lbs. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Scribner
Date Published: 2009-03-24
ISBN-13:9781439110072ISBN:1439110077
Description: Like New. Hardcover w/ Dustjacket. Not ex-library or remainder. Interior is clean and unmarked. Dustjacket shows minimal, if any shelf wear. Binding is tight and secure. I ship carefully and quickly with Delivery Confirmation always included on US orders! read more
"Although the librarian who signed out this book for me called the writing abominable and the treatment voyeuristic, I found the memoir very compelling and honest. I didn't expect great writing, but what I found was perfectly adequate. I expected to find some factual errors about Oberlin, but the few I found were inconsequential.
What I didn't expect was the clarity of feelings and the sense of hopelessness that engulfed Isabel when it became apparent that Josiah was not going to change his mind. That she carried on, muddled through, and did her best is a testament to her courage and perseverance.
I could almost see why Josiah gave up on the marriage. Her jealousy could be wearying. But since it was also clear that he had fallen in love with Sylvia, it was obvious that Isabel was NOT paranoid. Do I blame Sylvia for breaking up their marriage. Sure. But she obviously fell for Josiah like all his women fell for him. So in the end I blame Josiah (or his upbringing). It's too bad that Isabel fell so hard for him at first. She should have waited at least a year or two (it wasn't really clear how long) before marrying him."
"This is not a story with a happy ending. You know that from the very beginning, so I'm not spoiling anything. It's a story about a marriage bust-up, with kids and all. There's nothing cheery about it. Neither of the parties involved come out looking particularly good. He did end up leaving his wife for another woman, but even she seems equivocal (at least in my view) about the extent to which something was actually going as the marriage fell apart. Then again, maybe it's because she never really knew. What Isabel Gillies does manage to convey so convincingly is the rapidity of the decline...it's all over within four months. Without his side of the story, it's difficult to assess how long he had really been unhappy--the answer to that question might explain the rapid decline. In some ways, this memoir seems her attempt to find the answer to those unanswerable questions: when did it start to disintegrate? what did I do wrong? The reasons why she asks these, however, remain puzzling to me. She's now happily remarried...while picking over the detritus of her previous marriage may be therapeutic for her (and vaguely interesting for her readers as she does write well), there are certainly those left in Ohio (surely) who know exactly who she's writing about. As she says, Oberlin was (is) a small community."
""I'm not a writer but I have been told I write good emails, which has led me to...tell this story." Isabel Gillies is correct, she is not a writer, and It Happens Every Day is pieced together like a long email-conversationally. Her style is an effective illusion of girl talk that allows her to express the disappointment she felt while her marriage to a college poetry professor collapsed. Her story of betrayal is a nightmare for any wife, and many pages are read in absolute dread of the known outcome.
After reading her memoir, one feels they know Gillies, and upon consideration she seems like a real pain in the ass. One instance she has her weeping for about a half an hour in front of her children and a babysitter because her husband, Josiah, hadn't made dinner plans to commemorate their first night in a new town. She also makes comments like this, "Because I was on the cover of Seventeen magazine when I was fourteen and I am an actress, I depend on the fact that, objectively, I am good looking. Tall, blond hair, odd looks but undeniably attractive." The statement is irritating on many levels beginning with the fact that the second sentence simply isn't one. It could also be argued that Gillies repeatedly threw an attractive colleague at her husband as some sort of bizarre test which sadly he fails.
But I can't help but like Gillies and every point one can make against Gillies only serves to make her more real. "Hiding is the last thing I do. I have no secrets," she explains. Her candidness serves her well. Her take though admittedly one-sided is moving, and she tells it with remarkable grace."
"Gillies crafts a riveting memoir about the unraveling of her life as a faculty wife at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. Maybe it's because I work at a small college extremely similar to Oberlin, but this was one juicy read. She is married to "Josiah," a poetry scholar who moves the family (they have two young sons) to Oberlin from the East Coast. (Isabel left a recurring role on the TV show "Law and Order.") They settle in, buy a beautiful old home, make friends with other professors, revel in the cheap living and abundant cultural opportunities available in a college town . . . and then, quite suddenly, Josiah falls in love with another English professor and decides to leave the family. Isabel's world crumbles.
This is one of the most readable, engrossing books I've come across. I couldn't put it down, and apparently I'm not the only one. (I've since googled reviews.) I always think that the sign of a good movie is when I find myself thinking about it for days after I've seen it. In this case, I can't stop thinking about this book. The people in this story -- and their actions -- are absolutely fascinating. I've looked up "Josiah" and the "other woman" ("Sylvia") and uncovered their real names and they both still work at Oberlin . . . though "Josiah" is currently on leave (hmmm, I wonder why!). I even found Isabel and "Josiah's" wedding announcement in the New York Times, back from 1999.
This book was akin to driving, very slowly, next to a car accident. The destruction is horrific but you can't look away. With each chapter you can see "Josiah" pulling away, and Isabel becoming more and more desperate. It is a sad, heart-wrenching story, but unfortunately, as Isabel learns, something that "happens every day.""
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